This invention relates generally to creating and displaying an advertising message on a electronic headphone cord, clothing string, or lanyard, referred generally as a cord.
There are many known ornamental attachments designed for various objects such as vehicle antennas, head phone buds, and shoes. Traditional antenna attachments are formed by boring a hole through the center of the attachment. Such prior art attachments are secured to by threading the antenna through the hole. There are known problems with this method of attachment in that when vehicle antenna generally have a tip with a larger diameter than the rod of the antenna, so the mounting hole is undesirably enlarged when sliding the attachment onto the antenna, making it difficult or impossible for the attachment to remain securely positioned on a particular place on the antenna. The '820 patent teaches an improvement wherein the channel contains recesses to accommodate the larger antenna tip. While the '820 is a significant improvement over the prior art, it suffers from at least three shortcomings. First, it relies on the center bore channel of the prior art for attachment which allows the attachment to be undesirably rotated when the vehicle is traveling at high speeds. Second, antenna tips are not standardized so unique attachment must be prepared for each different size an style of antenna tip. Third, the '820 is limited to attachments contemplated, prepared, and distributed by the manufacturer. Similar issues would arise with attaching a similar system to an electronic headphone cord. The base plug of the electronic headphone cord is abnormally large compared to the cord itself. This would indicate that a fixture with a mounting hole or bore would have to be enlarged to accommodate the base plug but would then be two large to be able to securely fashion at any particular spot on the cord without continuing to slid.
What is needed is an improved system that permits advertisement fixture to be secured to electronic headphone cords, cord strings, or lanyard cords, generally referred to as cords, that overcomes limitations and problems to provide the consumer with a flexible, easy, and reliable system to place advertising messages for display on an electronic headphone cord or clothing string.